I have been an ardent McLaren fan since 2003. In the initial phase, I supported Raikkonen primarily, whilst later on it was Hamilton. I never gave much attention to their teammates, aside from Montoya and Alonso.

In any case, long before 2013 even started (before I know McLaren had a dog of a car), I lost interest in the team for this season since I could not pick either driver. Both don’t stand out to me.

So yeah, I am watching 2013 without supporting a team, just watching it for the spectacle (which has admittedly been a tad boring lately). I find myself occasionally rooting for RoGro, Raikkonen and Hamilton, but nothing major.

So I want to know. Has this happened to you? Where you ardently support a team but then lose interest when they sign two mediocre drivers?

Magnussen seems like a Hamilton/Raikkonen hybrid, so keeping my fingers crossed he comes here next season. That would rekindle my love interest in the team!

McLaren definitely picked another Jenson when they signed Perez. Di Resta I would consider the same. Hulkenberg was definitely the Hamilton type replacement. Magnussen and Vandoorne could be budding Lewises, maybe Vandoorne is he more buttony, but I’m unsure there. I’m sure a lot of McLaren fans must feel the same way as you, especially the ones who primarily got interested in F1 when Hamilton came on the scene (younger generation in the UK).

Strangely enough, I was a boyhood fan of Damon Hill in the Williams, but after 97 became somewhat of a neutral.. Even as an 8 year old, the new regulations put me off substantially.. Make of that what you will! Nowadays I’m quite neutral and really only a fan of talent and team efficiency. I definitely start to support those who I feel have been unlucky though, with the opposite for those who have been too lucky…

I have always been a somewhat neutral viewer, with a soft spot for sub-top teams/drivers with giant slaying drives. Probably because of that I find myself rooting against any dominant team or constantly front-running driver. For instance, supported Vettel massively in 2008, and not after. Kind of hypocrite I guess, but that’s how I work ;)

It kind of happened to me with Sauber, I absolutely loved them when they had Kobayashi and Perez as their line up, but now with both of them gone, I don’t really feel that supportive of them anymore.

As far as this year’s line up goes, I like Hulkenberg (although I wouldn’t say I’m a fan), but I really don’t think Gutierrez deserves his seat as he has been poor for the vast majority of the year. I guess it’s harder to support a team when they have a driver that I don’t think should be there.

In general though I’ve always supported the drivers more than the teams.

keeping my fingers crossed he comes here next season. That would rekindle my love interest in the team!

I think that’s a sign you still like McLaren! Of course, when your favourite driver and your favourite team aren’t racing together, it’s hard to choose who to support first. I have increasingly lost much of my love for Ferrari since they signed Alonso. It’s not gone, Massa keeps it there and Raikkonen will continue doing so. But I hope Massa wins wherever he ends up, and Ferrari only take second.
For me, drivers come before teams: I like Marussia much more this year because they have Bianchi, and Sauber because they have Hulkenberg, and Force India less since they let go of Liuzzi. But Ferrari and Sauber will always be my favourite teams.

The first race I watched was Jerez 1997, and though I no longer feel that way, I was so impressed by Schumacher’s move, it marked me as a Schumacher/Ferrari fan for life. That being said, Ferrari has a place in my heart, but more like a family member who keeps falling off the wagon, than the love of my life.

When my favorite drivers from my early childhood (Alesi, Panis, Hakkinen, Verstappen, Hill) left the sport, I always felt they left a void, instead of moving on to new drivers to support. When Schumacher left, Alonso (who I disliked at the time) had won two titles and Raikkonen (my next-favorite at the time) was the unluckiest driver in the sport, so for 2007 about half the reason I watched F1 was gone. Ferrari started making bad mistakes, McLaren clearly was a better team (or organization) and this new kid (Hamilton) wasn’t making things more pleasant for me either.

I kept watching, but missed a lot of races. I tried following closely again in 2009, but I had my mind on other things. I think 2010 really reeled me back in, with Ferrari and Alonso awaking the tifosi in me, Mark Webber finally doing well and myself finally supporting drivers who weren’t Schumacher. I remained a Schumacher fan throughout his return, and jumped off the couch in excitement after being the fastest in Q3 at Monaco last year, but it wasn’t the same Michael to me.

Back from 2000-2005 I also followed F3000, F3, national series and such pretty close to have a feint idea of who to watch, which didn’t really returned until van der Garde did well in GP2 in 2011 and Frijns was winning races in FR 3.5 last year.

I think I lent my passion to music for a long time, but now F1 consumes more of my time than going to concerts or reading musician interviews. Guess life goes in circles a little like that, too.

I’d say my younger self wouldn’t accept Ferrari and Schumacher were unbeatable, now, I find myself to be increasingly supportive of Vettel. It took me years to admit how good Alonso was, but now he’s my favorite. Regarding Sauber, I’ve always been their fan, but didn’t feel too enthusiastic about BMW Sauber at first. I don’t have strong feelings either way for Red Bull, Lotus, Mercedes, Force India, Caterham or Marussia, though, but the drivers I tend to have a clearer feeling about.

Generally I support drivers, not teams. I started watching F1 as a little child, and I liked how Senna raced (I’m talking about 1990, a 6 year old boy who saw in Senna the first real hero), then TV in my country stopped broadcasting F1 for 10 long years, where I really couldn’t see any race (imagine the only way I knew about my hero dying was on a 2-minute note on the local news). I resumed watching in 2000, and I rooted for Schum, but not “ardently” as @wsrgo says. in 2001 I discovered Kimi producing great results in a Sauber and I became his fan. I got upset when he couldn’t beat Schum in 2003, and couldn’t beat Alonso in 2005, so 2007 was my happiest year F1-wise so far (at that time). Then I was quite dissapointed by his performance in 2008, so I didn’t suffer so much when Massa got beaten by Hamilton in the last lap (but well, it ruined my day). I did notice a guy called Vettel who managed to win Italy (and almost ruined Hamilton glory in Brazil). It was like Kimi’s story again. Rooting for the kid with super talent. So all these 5 years (counting since Vettel started to give battle in 2009) are the happiest years in my F1 life.
… and no, I don’t root for teams. Just for drivers. Kimi, Seb… and there’s another talent coming in Hulk. I hope to see him as champion in the following years, even if he has to beat Vettel for that.

I stopped rooting for anyone particular when my favorite driver (Peterson) died at Monza, it’s actually one of the few things I remember clearly from my childhood. Since then I am mostly rooting for any outcome that would be curious, weird, or amazing. For instance, I rooted for Hamilton to win in his rookie season. When he did not, he became “just another driver” to me. I actually found that it liberated me to enjoy races regardless of the outcome. Right now I am torn between rooting for Vettel to make it a record six in a row and hoping that we get some change on the top :-).

I actually find myself supporting drivers more so than teams. I’d love to be a die-hard fan of one team, but I find it difficult, especially when they may sign drivers I don’t like, or end up leaving the sport.

The problem I have is that I’ve supported Jenson since he came into the sport, so when he leaves, I’m sure I’m going to have the same sort of problem…

I started watching the sport in 1993 and found myself backing Hill in his attempt to get his first win. When he succeed he had a fan and naturally I became a Williams fan as a result. The next few years were about getting that championship!

Eventually Hill left the sport leaving just the Williams team to support, but I’ve generally struggled to find a passion for them most years.

I tend to watch as a neutral now and really respect all the guys and teams and think people are far too harsh in their criticisms, especially the world champions on the grid. They all have their individual skill-sets, it’s great.

I guess I became a Williams fan again last year with Bruno Senna being in the team, but that was a nostalgia thing having been a Williams fan when Senna died.

@full-throttle-f1 – Australia 2009 was possibly one of my favourite weekends, just because it was such a shock, and…well, even after looking at pre-season testing, I hadn’t expected it. It was almost as good as October 18th 2009, when JB won the Championship on my 17th birthday. I’ll never forget that ;)

JB has a special placein my mind as he is the first person I remember winning the championship (I was a F1 cynic at the time, funny how things change), I was (and still am) a massive Top Gear fan and I remember when they had JB on as a guest when he won, although I was more interested in the Noble M600 that they tested.